Children In Jigawa’s 23 LGAs Risk Childhood Blindness

By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse

No fewer than 23 out of the 27 local government areas in Jigawa state are reported to have been identified as having the highest rate of childhood blindness, which requires an urgent intervention of all stakeholders to address.

This frightening disclosure was made by Mr. Paul Nenfort, a Programmer Officer with BMZ, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) founded by Germany Federal Ministry of Finance, Economic Corporation and Development during a one-day sensitization on eye health and child blindness prevention for journalists in the state.

The objective of the forum was to seek the media support for its campaign against childhood blindness as well as promoting comprehensive and inclusive eye healthcare in the state and beyond.

According to Nenfort, community awareness and mobilization on detecting the sign of eye ailments and referring the case to professional at health facilities is critical in addressing the prevalence of blindness in the state.

Dr. Abdulrahman Umar Aminu, the Eye Care Coordinator State Ministry of Health said the partners have been collaborating with the state government on health workers capacity building, community mobilization for identification of eye cases and referral also providing Opthalmic equipment to health facilities for enhancing access to eye treatment services.

Umar noted that, the provision of the equipment and capacity building have made the services accessible and affordable to people, noting that, affected persons were being encouraged to visit any nearest health facilities in any case of eye problem without delay “

He, however revealed that, through their intervention over 70,000 Cataract surgery and 48,000 Trichiasis surgery was conducted free of charge in the state and over 7,000 reading glasses have been given to school children among others.

The Chairman of Jigawa State Correspondents’ Chapel Muhammad Zangina assured the commitment journalists in supporting and promoting activities that would strengthen the public healthcare services delivery.

He also promised to ensure effective public enlightenment on measures need to be taken by community in fight against childhood blindness and accessing inclusive eye Healthcare.